I called this trip redemption. We flew home on 1/23/21; one year before on 1/24/20 we left thinking we were heading to Costa Rica. 365 days even. Reaching the 1 year mark of when the world shifted for us was really big in my mind. Circles by Post Malone was comically popular when we were making our drive back from Florida to Michigan and it should have been telling of what the next couple years would feel like. We hadn’t heard it for months, but it seemed to keep showing up. Retracing our route back through KY on the way to AR, on the road back to Gatlinburg. Surely we were reversing whatever curse we started in 2020.
Prior to the pandemic we had been looking into ways to split time in the summer and winter to reduce the amount of time we had to spend on “vacation”. Ideally we wanted to split time between Colorado and Arizona after falling in love with them during our travels. In 2020 we were lucky to find ways to continue taking trips, but that low when returning home just started to feel so much lower each time. Why did I need home to be in this cold place with nothing to do? Continued restrictions in Michigan, particularly of things we enjoy like movie theaters and dining out, didn’t do anything to help. I felt trapped. I started looking into a band along the center of the country from Arkansas to Virginia. Where it didn’t get that cold, at least for long, and didn’t get all that hot either. Where you were in or near the mountains without the cost of the west. Part of this trip was to see what we thought of the various areas in real life that fit our budget. We also got to explore Gatlinburg finally, visit with 2 friends who live in the area and get some elevation in the winter without too much snow.
Side note: While our flights aren’t usually worth mentioning, this trip marked the first time we used a Minute Suite with our Priority Pass. This perk was GOLD while mask mandates still existed (and even after when you have to make an early connector with a long layover). You basically check into a mini hotel room for an hour with a trundle bed, desk, TV and your own Alexa. Oh and so many plugs to charge your electronics. It’s the perfect amount of privacy in a busy airport. As of January 2023 the only credit card that has access to Minutes Suites is the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Hickory NC
About an hour outside of Charlotte, this area was much quieter. The very first thing we noticed when we stopped at a park to kill time before check-in was how active everyone was. It was a very nice maybe mid 50 degree sunny day and everyone was outside. Even when we got into our airbnb I sat on the porch in the sun reading and listening to kids play and people mow their lawns. In JANUARY.
This was the first place we noticed a strange thing about North Carolina… you can’t see anything from the highway. You would think you are always in the middle of nowhere. But lo and behold, you get off an exit and there is stuff there. I think it’s probably only strange if you come from an area like the midwest with lots of farmland and a far viewing distance, but we still make jokes about how you can’t see anything in North Carolina. We don’t seem to have this problem in SC.
One cool stop we made was at the location they used as District 12 in The Hunger Games. Henry River Mill Village is an old cotton yarn mill town just outside Hickory. I don’t believe tours were running on Sunday so we just did a drive by. It was a bit underwhelming, but we were already there and a tour would have been very cool.
We experienced our first Food Lion. We love checking out groceries stores, but all their prices were high and it felt like a dingy Spartan store. On our second rainy day we took to the touristy spots: Bunker Hill Covered Bridge and Murray’s Mill. Now living in the south these are two staples; covered bridges and mills. We took the rest of the rainy day to shop and relax. This trip was overall very slow compared to what we normally do.
Our last day in Hickory we got our first taste of the hiking options in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We hiked Shortoff Mountain which was challenging for our Michigan winter lungs, but had fantastic views all the way up.
Johnson City TN
Day 4 I learned what the Blue Ridge Parkway was really like. How naive of me to think that I could access any hiking near Grandfather Mountain without paying in the winter. Every single hike I had scoped out for the drive from North Carolina to Tennessee was on the parkway. The parkway was not plowed and therefore closed from Nov-Apr. No wonder Google took us through Blowing Rock (wow what a gorgeous place) and down a very winding local highway with, you guessed it, no view. The leaves were down though so I could see enough to know we were riding along the edge of the mountain but there were never any turnouts or overlooks. After deciding we did not what to pay for Grandfather Mountain we just headed right to Johnson City.
We did what we do best, pack a bunch into one day. We explored downtown, which was very cool. I think this was our first time really experiencing a downtown with a train running right through the middle. It is a staple of almost every town we visit now in South Carolina. Went to the local mall and it was hopping! (Anyone else love exploring shopping malls everywhere? Just us? The emptier the better.) And went for a walk at the local park. The first thing I noticed was how friendly everyone in Johnson City was. Smiling, friendly and kind. A woman with her dog literally struck up a conversation while passing us in the park. Compared to the fear, anxiety and hostility I felt from those around me in Michigan, this was so refreshing.
We noticed how much colder it was on the north side of the mountain range. Our only full day in the area we headed into Kingsport and hiked to a fire tower! This was my first fire tower and it was a little nerve wracking. We enjoyed our last night with dinner out and building a fire in the wood stove.
Gatlinburg TN
We made it!! After last years flood debacle anxieties ran high pulling into our riverside hotel room. While Pigeon Forge was everything I imagined “kiddie Vegas” to be, Gatlinburg was so much more compact and beautiful than I pictured. With many of the roads closed for the winter, we were able to take one hike inside the park. It was concrete most of the way and so very busy. Did you know that Smoky Mountain National Park is free to visit? Because of the road that cuts through the mountains and arrangements made when the land was gifted they can never charge an entrance fee. They can (and will on 3/1/23) start charging for parking while in the park.
My friend had suggested going up high to see the city lights in the dark so we hopped on the chair lift to Anakeesta to try their new treetop skywalk, eat some sub par BBQ with a view and see the city lights from the observation tower. Bonus points: We saw a bear! And luckily from a distance. This was the first time I had ever seen one in the wild.
Asheville NC
The next day we were met with snow and had to drive around the mountain instead of going through the park. We have now driven the mountain pass in all conditions possible sun, rain, dark, light and it all started in the snow. I secretly think the snow was the most beautiful, but I wasn’t the one driving. We stopped in Maggie Valley for some awesome pizza while a few inches came down outside in just an hour. Decreasing in elevation we lost some of the accumulation but gained paper mill smell.
Have you ever been near a paper mill? You would know. Canton, NC is home to a paper mill and one of the most god awful smells I have ever experience. It’s like a salty sweet brine and when it’s pumping the smell consumes you. Of course whether or not you smell it depends on the wind. DoWiSeTrePla. And thankfully our airbnb was not there. Since I’m keeping tabs on grocery stores, we made our first visit to Ingles. Now I prefer to say it like English in Spanish, but it’s really the whitest pronunciation you can imagine. Now say it with a southern accent. This is one of our go-tos now for sales but their prices often make Publix look cheap.
Since I had now learned that anything worth hiking was off the parkway and the parkway was closed, we used this spot as a jumping off point to visit downtown Asheville. We got some Carolina BBQ, did a walking tour downtown, tried to catch glimpses of The Biltmore and drove the only stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway that was open.
Spartanburg & Greenville SC
We used the Monday MLK holiday to take a hike. Adam’s chiropractor had gone to school in Greenville and recommended we hike Table Rock. This quintessential Greenville hike is not for the out of shape. We struggled for a good portion of the hike this first time. But WOW was it cool. Huge boulders, sweeping viewpoints, scrambling rocks and lots of elevation.
It was time to get settled in as Adam was working this short week from our next Airbnb. We stayed in the walkout basement of someone’s house backing serene woods. This provided endless entertainment for me when the owner’s son and his girlfriend came down to the room adjoining our apartment to work out and I overheard all their conversations. Adam was more interested in the hook and ring toss, spending hours over the 4 days repetitively swinging the string.
We spent a lot of time exploring the Spartanburg side of town (Duncan, Greer, Boiling Springs, Moore). Like Johnson City and Gatlinburg had been colder North of the mountains, GSP was 10 degrees warmer than anywhere we had been. As we circumnavigated the area, we decided last minute to check out downtown Greenville which was well out of our price range. Looking for somewhere to walk I googled park and that’s how we ended up at Falls Park. Seriously by accident. How did I not know this waterfall in the middle of a city existed? As we walked around I got excited. THIS. This could be home. This could be my city. Something about the entire area just clicked, but we weren’t sure of a specific spot.
Columbia, Charlotte and Friends
We spent our last two days catching up with friends and visiting South Carolina’s National Park Congaree. It was a little lack luster after our National Park adventures in 2020, but unique and interesting in it’s own right. It is also another free National Park so it makes it a no brainer if you’re in the area. Driving there we truly experienced our first southern back woods experience. It’s just a level or remoteness I couldn’t have imagined before.
Final Thoughts
This trip spurred us into looking more at the Greenville/Spartanburg area to move. Look at all the adventures we could have in January! I remember sitting at the Charlotte airport outside in the sun because I just couldn’t imagine leaving it. We hadn’t seen sun in Michigan in at least 2 full weeks before we left.
Oddly enough we now live in an area west of Greenville that we never even explored on this trip, or at all before putting an offer in on our house. And it was 1000% the right place for us. I don’t think I would have been able to pull the trigger remotely without having explored the greater area first. So many of the other places we visited in NC & TN were nice, but just didn’t feel right once we were there.
We’ve had so much time now to explore this area and I can’t wait to share more specific adventures!
Cost Breakdown
15 Days, 14 Nights
I finally let the technology and time beat me. We returned from this trip 2 years ago this week. Chase deletes all credit card transactions after 24 month. I didn’t calculate my full costs for this trip until now. So I’ve put together what I could find from monthly statements.
This certainly wasn’t a budget trip for us. Meeting up with friends often means splurging on food and drinks and we did some of that on our own in Gatlinburg as well. Sometimes it’s worth just soaking in the moment and doing the thing.
